Cuddle Heart Cutout Pillow

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 I have three little girls who always love it when I made things for them and they always fight about who gets my newest project. My middle daughter had been asking me to make something for her, usually her older sister claims everything, and she had specifically requested it be pink, her favorite color. I had had the idea for this pillow in my head for a while and thought it would be perfect for her. I showed her the soft cuddle fabric and told her I was going to make a pink pillow with a heart and she got so excited. She took the pillow insert and draped the fabric over it, she stayed in my sewing room the whole time I was working on it. She handed me different things as I needed them and asked every couple seconds if it was time to put the pillow in. She was so excited to see her very own pillow come together. When it was done and I handed it to her she got the biggest grin on her face and hugged the pillow. She immediately brought it to her bedroom and put it on her bed then came and got me to show me how it looked. Seeing how happy a simple pillow made my little girl made me so happy, it is my favorite part of making thing, seeing other people enjoy the things I have made.

I made this pillow using a pillow insert provided to me by Fairfield World and rose cuddle fabric from Shannon Fabrics. I got the rose cuddle to make a blanket, which I will post about soon, and had some leftover, that particular color of pink didn't work well with the other colors so I took it out. I thought a pillow would be a fun way to use some of it. I used some pink cotton fabric that I happened to have in my stash and made a heart cutout, kind of a reverse appliqué type of thing. I put the rose cuddle behind that so that it showed through the opening. Then I stitched around it so that it stayed in place. After that I just sewed a couple of pieces to the back to finish the pillow cover and stuck the insert inside. 

How to Make a Cuddle Heart Cutout Pillow

Finished size 16" square

You will need:

• 1/2 yard pink cotton fabric
• 1/2 yard rose cuddle fabric (sample made with Hot Pink)
• 1/2 yard or fat quarter muslin (for the lining of the heart cutout, if you have enough of the pink you can use that, I didn't have enough so I just used some cheap muslin, you won't see it at all once the pillow is sewn together)
• Fairfield Crafter's Choice Pillow 16'' Square
• paper
• scissors, rotary cutter, mat and ruler
• iron
• coordinating thread
• pins
• sewing machine

Instructions:

Cut

1-16 1/2" square each from pink cotton, muslin, and rose cuddle

2- 16 1/2" x 11" rectangles from pink cotton

From your piece of paper, I just used printer paper, cut a heart shape. You want it about as big as you can from the paper. Mine measured about 9" across at the widest part and about 8" tall.

Trace the heart in the center of the muslin.

Place the pink cotton square and the muslin square right sides together and sew on the line that you traced all the way around.

Carefully cut the center of the heart out leaving a seam allowance all the way around.

Clip the curves all around the seam allowance that you left so that it will lay flat and smooth when you turn it. Be sure to clip the points at the top and bottom of the hearts as well. Don't cut through you stitching.

Turn the piece right side out, smoothing all of the curves and points as you turn. Press flat. You should end up with a piece that looks like this:

Place your heart cutout piece on top of the square of rose cuddle and pin all around. Pin around the heart and around the outside edge. Cuddle fabric can move so using lots of pins really helps keep it in place as you sew.

 Topstitch around the heart opening.

Prepare your back flap pieces by sewing a narrow hem along one long side of each rectangle.

Pin the flaps right sides together, hemmed edges overlapped in the center to the pillow front.

Sew all the way around the outside of the pillow.

Turn right side out and put the pillow insert into the cover.

And now you have a fun heart pillow perfect for Valentine's Day.